mcdonough. we just heard secretary gates say there could be any number of possible outcomes.t is the desired outcome that the white house is hoping for. >> gwen, thanks a lot for the opportunity to be with you tonight. i really appreciate it. the president explained to the country last friday afternoon that we are setting aside for ourselves a very tightly defined finite establishable mission in the early parts this effort where we're going to shape the environment using our unique assets and then enable our international colleagues, our allies in europe and our partners in the arab world to take over the conduct of the no-fly zone. we're making good strides toward that. he also said out an effort to protect the civilians in benghazi. we have done that thanks to the good work of our marines, our sailors, our airmen and we're making good progress towards both of those goals. what happens after then is we'll watch the u.n. do its work. importantly you'll remember the u.n. appointed the special envoy in the first security council resolution about two weeks ago now so we're going

dennis mcdonough recently spoke at the adams center and the all-dulles american muslim so side. he noted al qaeda coerced recruiting argument is that the west is at war with islam, a chief goal of our national security policy is to undermine this argument. this requires active engagement with muslim community at home and throughout the world, as president obama said in his cairo speech, "islam is not part of the problem in combatting violent extremism. it is an important part of prom poeting peace." this brings me to my last point and i will try to hurry, mr. chairman, because i see the time. the best defense against extreme ideologies is social inclusion. ralph bolter, head of the minneapolis fbi illustrates my point. he led a large-scale probe into counterterrorism involving local somali americans heading overseas to fight with terrorist organizations. he is now coming to d.c. to become the agency's deputy assistant director in charge of counterterrorism. bolter's strategy, to find extremism, the agency needs to establish sincere relationships within the community. "we had to

i asked white house deputy national security adviser dennis mcdonough this week what americans should expect. the success of this mission, then, to is not necessarily whether we leave or whether we stay. it's what? i guess i'm trying to figure out, what is the exit strategy? >> well, we're not talking about an exit strategy. the president defin it clearly the other night in terms of our initial efforts in this undertaking. we carved out a space where we will be able to enable our partners to take over the no-fly zone. we have turned the troops back from benghazi, protected those civilians. and we continue to degrade his forces, so they can't undertake the kind of mass atrocity that we all feared just a week ago. gwen: but gaddafi is still in power, even as nato is leading the mission and as secretary of state hillary clinton conceded last night, the end is not yet in sight. >> this operation has already saved many lives, but the danger is far from over. as long as the gadhafi regime threatens its people and defies the united nations, we must remain vigilant and focused. gus: we now ex

in the first place i know we did hear very recently from deputy national security adviser denis mcdonough about our involvement and he said this he said quote we don't intervene based on precedent or based on a certain set of consistency guidelines but rather so that we can advance our interests what in this case are u.s. interests and let me well the interest is not to be intervening that's for sure the interest in libya if you look at serious national interests for the united states is libya's an energy producer whoever is in charge of libya will have to sell the energy so that's ok it doesn't matter who the government is and the and the other thing is you know the basically libya cannot become a base for terrorism but libya was not a base for terrorism under. gadhafi so the question is there's no national interest really here libya was not a base for terrorism under gadhafi at all i mean he said not recently not since he had a long history i know it is hard out of the cold yeah exactly but in recent history could offer us not going to supporter of terrorism as far as anyone knows but t

just this past sunday, dennis mcdonough, made a major speech on radicalization stating that al-qaeda and its adherents have increasingly turned to another troubling tactic -- attempting to recruit and radicalize people to terrorism here in the united states. for a long time, many in the u.s. thought we were immune from this threat. that was false hope and false comfort. this threat is real and it is serious. he went on to say that al qaeda does this for the express purpose of trying to convince the muslim-americans to reject their country and attacked their fellow americans. i should also add my own personal conversations with mr. mcdonough, he told me to go forward with the hearing and the administration welcomes congressional involvement. in late december, attorney- general holder said a growing number of my young americans being radicalized and willing to take up arms against our country keeps him awake at night. two weeks before that, the attorney general defended the fbi's sting operation against a radical who attempted a terror attack during the christmas tree lighting ceremony

the fact is, when dennis mcdonough spoke on sunday, what he said, the muslim american community is being targeted by al qaeda. that's the reality. >> do you have law enforcement officials testifying at your hearing who will say the muslim community has not been cooperating in trying to turn in the radicals when they find them? >> better than that, george. i will have people from the muslim community who will say how when they went to law enforcement, how imams attempted to stop them. how they were threatened when they did want to report. how the fbi began investigations and the imams in the mosques told them not to cooperate. these are people on the ground. the main witnesses will be muslim, people in the community. showing how they're intimidated. showing how their family is being radicalized and showing how imams and other leaders and groups such as c.a.r.e., are working against them. to me, that's much more effective evidence, rather than a law enforcement person talk about statistics. i'd rather have a person on the ground. i can tell you from my experience, every law enforcement per

indeed, this past weekend, deputy national security advisor denis mcdonough echoed what others in the obama administration have said that al qaeda is actively trying to recruit u.s. citizens. >> they make videos, create internet forums, even publish online magazines, all for the expressed purpose of trying to convince muslim americans to reject their country and attack their fellow americans. >> warner: but today's first witness objected to the premise democratic representative keith ellison of minnesota, the first muslim elected to congress, told of a man who rushed into the twin towers on 9/11 to save others, but was, for a time, a suspect himself. >> mohammed salman hamdani was a fellow american who gave his life for another americans. his life should not be identified as just a member of an ethnic group or just a member of religion, but as an american who gave everything for his fellow americans. >> warner: zuhdi jasser, of the american islamic forum for democracy, agreed but said the muslim community needs to acknowledge there's a significant problem with radicalization. >> you k

states is going down and eric holder says it's going up and napolitano says it's going up and dennis mcdonough says it's going up. i think it's a biased report. we will have family members testifying tomorrow at the hearings to show how they did cooperate but they did not receive support from the leadership in the community. >> congressman elson, many of the recent attacks and attempted attacks have come within the muslim community. what is wrong with questioning muslim leaders as to what is actually going on inside their communities? >> because what we want to do is build cooperation and trust and open lines of communication so that we can have a very, very fertile and good exchange between law enforcement and the community. i mean, if you take a hearing like this and use it an congressional investigative hearing to investigate a community, with the allegation -- before we've even had any testimony, the allegation that there is no cooperation, i think what you're doing is you're setting a tone of blame and collective guilty and thwarting the very thing you say you want to achieve which is gre

ceremony at walter reed army medical center with members of his unit present, lieutenant colonel mcdonough, battalion commander, said he hoped his own children might one day have the courage of corporal todd nicely. when it was todd's turn to speak, he said simply, i'd like to thank everybody. i'd like to thank my platoon for getting me back. if it weren't for you guys, i don't think i'd be alive today. other than that, i don't really have much more to say. i love you guys. todd nicely's toughness, his courage, concern for squad mates even when his own life hung in the balance, and his quiet humility are hallmarks we have witnessed time and again amongst this generation of warriors, but not just this generation, warriors of previous generations, as well. whatever service we come from, all of us can see in todd nicely and his actions the essence of the marine corps, always faithful. i am told the word polytrauma was not a word until this conflict. simply, people who are this badly injured did make it off the battlefield. polytrauma is a new word to all of us. todd nicely and others like him